Kibbutz Ein Zurim is the home of the Bottle Tree, an artisan center. Located an hour away from Tel Aviv, they specialize in the production of citrus fruit and blossoms that grow in specially designed bottles. Their goal is to bring the scents of the Holy Land from the orchard to your home.
Following an ancient Persian tradition, the lemons are specially grown in unique bottles. Once picked, the lemon is suspended in alcohol for a year to distill. The mixture of alcohol and citral, enhances the aroma and gives the citrus increased shelf-life.
The lemons grow in a variety of bottles and their citrus scents are all made from genuine whole flowers from citrus orchards in Israel. For anyone that is curious to know "how they do it?", visitors are invited to pop into the Bottle Tree Visitor Center, to watch the process.
And if that is not enough, while you are on the kibbutz you can also check out Studio Meshi. This artisan studio specializes in silk painting, which you can observe in person. Silk artworks include: scarves, challah covers, and talitot (ie. prayer shawls). Each of the painted silk creations are unique and individually made. All of the Bottle Tree products can also be purchased online from their Etsy store.
This is one kibbutz I definitely plan to visit. They even have a guest house with suites and rooms. In addition to learning about the locally made artisan products, I can also spend time at this religious kibbutz, eating kosher food and learning Torah. How exciting.
